In the playing of a player piano by electronic means, a strong solenoid is required to activate the "soft" and "sustain" playing mechanisms of the piano. In order to obtain the necessary force from solenoids, high currents must be passed through the solenoids resulting in significant power dissipation. During certain performances, the pedal solenoids must be activated for long periods of time which will cause the solenoids to overheat and sometimes burn up. Several alternatives have been investigated to eliminate the problem, the first of which was a switch which was activated by the solenoid as it neared the end of its travel. This switch inserted a resistance that reduced the voltage applied to the solenoid and thus reduced the power dissipation while still maintaining the solenoid in the held-in position. The problem with this arrangement is that the adjustments are critical and the switch mechanism is costly to build and install. A second alternative is to simply provide sufficient heat sink material around the solenoid to remove the heat and maintain it at a reasonable working temperature. This approach was found to be unsatisfactory in that it was impractical to provide sufficient heat sink inside a piano to keep the solenoid at a reasonable temperature during extremely long activation periods. Moreover, this heating up effect could be detrimental to the piano itself by drying it out. The solution to this problem according to the present invention maintains full voltage on the solenoid for a short period of time--more than sufficient to allow full travel--and then reduces the applied voltage. This is accomplished by starting a timer when the solenoid is commanded on and then when the timer times out gate the command signal on and off with a waveform which can be set at a duty cycle maintaining the solenoid in the held-in position. The approach is economical in that an existing oscillator in the electronics of the system may be used for gating the waveform and the other components may be mounted on the electronic logic board.